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Three Months before the Attack on Kazoook
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Carina Nebula, E-9 Explorer, Convor
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Althus Vebb pounded away at the busted heat conversion conduit with the rubber end of her dynamic hammer in building frustration. The kriffing thing had become misaligned once again and was sucking heat from the rest of the E-9 Explorer's systems and cross-feeding it back into the reactor.
The fusion reactor could handle it, but the rest of the Convor's interior had already dropped five degrees in the last hour, and that was with the environmental controls cranked up to their maximum output.
It was Althus's thankless job to keep the hyperspace exploration vessel running. It should have been an easy gig. At least that's what she'd believed three thousand parsecs ago. The usual problem on these long range exploration missions was always keeping the shields running while they dealt with hundreds of micrometeorite strikes. This time around their biggest problem was the addition of extra crew. The Convor had been built to house four crew members and four passengers on short hops of a few weeks. For this mission they had six crew and had been away from Imperial space for months on end without a resupply. Althus was keeping the Convor running through a mix of Talusian glue stats, fishing nets and that miracle duct tape stuff she had smuggled out from Earth.
The extra crewmen were the brainchild of the Convor's overly-confident, if not overly-bright, Captain, a Dressellian by the name of Teemasvalli Obitt. Teemasvalli had served in the Imperial Navy during the Empire-Earth War as a quartermaster aboard the Battle of Geonosis but there were times when Althus was convinced the Captain of the Convor couldn't tell his starboard arm from his port side appendage. Months ago, Teemasvalli had docked the Convor in New Auckland on Earth where he had heard wild rumors of a solid aurodium planet named El Dorado somewhere in the Carina-Sagittarius arm of the spiral Milky Way.
Althus firmly believed Teemasvalli was out of his mind. But even if they didn't find this laughable El Dorado place any new hyperlane they blazed would rake in a lot of credits from the Honorable East Empire Company, especially if they discovered the long-sought sustainable route to the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way. Fierfek, the guy who had blazed the wildly-successful Bloodstripe Run that formed the heart of the 2nd Galactic Empire was now married to Empress Phasma.
Catching gold fever Teemasvalli had hired on two new crew members, the Alderaanian Ania and Melion the Muun, who both claimed to have some prospecting experience. Althus looked over the environmental control monitor and sighed. Oxygen percentage in the life support system was running near seventeen percent of the atmosphere. It had been dropping nearly a full percent every week since they had departed from Kafrene Outpost near New Thyfeeria.
Normally seventeen percent atmospheric oxygen wouldn't have been a large concern. Most of the crew came from worlds where oxygen hovered around twenty-one percent standard. Althus herself was a Mon Cal born and raised in the Yos Ocean on Mars. Her species had evolved to breath in the one percent environment of water. The Convor's cartographer, a Givin, didn't even need air to survive and Althus was curious if Pontar could really survive in a vacuum like he swore he could. At current depletion rates the other crew members were going to have issues akin to altitude sickness soon, and survivability issues around ten percent. They needed to find a world with an atmosphere soon, before the life support system gave up the ghost completely.
The worst part of the dwindling oxygen levels was Teemasvalli. Dressellians had evolved on a world of such high oxygen concentrations that they could absorb extra oxygen through the folds of their thin skulls directly into their brains. The decreasing level of oxygen concentration in the environmental support systems had left the Convor's captain, not only his regular arrogant sheb-hole self, but also extremely loopy and prone to confusion.
No more further proof of their captain's lunacy was needed past a glance at the Convor's hypermatter reserves. Following a series of blind scouting jumps the E-9 Explorer's reserves had dwindled to thirty-six percent. They needed a minimum of thirty-three percent to return to Imperial space.
Unfortunately, no one on the Convor knew quite where Imperial territory was.
Seeing that everything with the engines was running about as smoothly as the Mon Cal was going to get them today, Althus decided to head up to the cockpit and see what kind of new problems Teemasvalli had cooked up since her last watch.
She exited her domain in the engineering room. The corridor outside was as frigid as a nerf meat locker. Frost covered the walls and the floor was slick with frozen condensation. For some reason Althus hadn't deduced yet the reactor was cannibalizing the heat in this section of the Convor. The lamps flickered on and off signaling that the sublights weren't only sucking energy from the heaters.
A screech from the deck caused Althus to jump as a ball of fuzz shot past her feet. Althus snapped at the intruder, "Stang it, Rex."
Althus followed the tabby cat through the crew quarters and towards the cockpit. The animal was one of a breed of mongrel Earth pests that had over run the Empire ever since the war. They were such a problem on some colonies that a bounty had been issued on their pelts. Althus had no idea why Teemasvalli insisted on keeping the creature as a pet when there were perfectly good tookas in the universe.
Rex led the way onto the half-empty bridge. He looked at the two occupants and then jumped onto Srev's, the Xexto pilot, lap and curled up. Srev absent-mindedly started stroking the animal with one of his multiple arms while he stared out the forward viewport into the void. He didn't bother to greet Althus. They were too accustomed to living on top of each other for months out here in the Void.
The only other crewman in the cockpit was wearing a towel around his neck. Every hyperspace scouting team needed a good astro-cartographer and the mathematically-minded Givins were some of the best. Althus wasn't exactly sure Pontar Bephorin was the brightest Givin in the galaxy. They were lost after all, for one thing. And for another, instead of helping to map a route back to the Empire, Pontar seemed to prefer reading books printed on flimsi rather than off of a datapad as most normal beings were prone to do. Pontar looked up and nodded a greeting when she entered and took a seat behind Srev and then buried his nose back into the flimsy-back novel he had been reading. Althus looked at the title on the cover, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and rolled her eyes. A hitchhiker was the last thing the Convor's stressed environmental systems needed right now.
"I think we've drifted back into the Orion Spur." Srev observed.
"Dank farrik. I told you the Space Ministry has already mapped every nebula along the Bloodstripe. This one is brand new." Pontar replied, not bothering to look up from his novel again.
Stretching out across most of a parsec in front of the Convor was a sprawling, purple diffuse nebula. Even larger than the Orion Nebula back in the Empire. Their long distance sensors detected at least a hundred planets inside the nebula baking inside the stellar nursery's radiation.
"We haven't mapped anything rimward of Earth." Srev said.
"Leave those outer rim junk worlds to the Terrans." Althus joined the conversation. "Credits are in the core. Why do you think Palpatine Prime is where it is and worthless Mars is facing off against Earth to this day?"
"Hey, my folks still live on Mars." Srev argued.
"We're not in the Perseus or the Orion Spur." Pontar stated in his whispy ghost voice. "A simple glance at the Milky Way's deep core proves we are much closer than those locations. All known landmarks are still trailing Orion locations like they should be. We're certainly in the Sagittarius Arm as I've been saying for weeks."
"So what is that thing?" Althus pointed to the nebula ahead of them.
"There's quite a few known objects in the Sagittarius that we purloined from Terran star charts during the war. It could be any one of them." Pontar answered.
"You think one of those lost Terran colonies is around here? The Imperial Navy will pay, like, a trillion credits to the scout who finds one of those babies." Srev asked.
"Maybe not that much, I've heard the bounty is closer to ten million." Althus replied.
"It will never be claimed. Those colony ships the Terrans used to escape the Sol System were extremely primitive and unshielded. It's doubtful they made it past Sol's Oort Cloud without meeting disaster."
"Doesn't hurt to keep one's eyes open." Srev was something of the perpetual optimist on the crew.
"Your time would be better spent looking for a clear hyperlane back to Imperial space. Fuel's getting pretty short." Althus warned him.
"Ah, Teemasvalli will find a way. He hasn't failed us in a while."
"He's certainly due." Pontar whispered.
"I'm due for what?" A voice asked from the rear of the cockpit.
Althus turned in her seat to greet Teemasvalli as he entered the cockpit. He was dressed in white Jodhpur slacks, a loose yellow blouse and a blue cape as if he thought of himself as some sort of gas giant Baron Administrator. The only other adornment to his outfit was an oxygen respirator clipped onto a hook hung around his neck. Evidently, Teemasvalli was starting to suffer from the effects of the Convor's diminishing oxygen supply on his pulmonary system.
"A big score, boss." Srev replied to the captain's inquiry.
"That I am. That I am." Teemasvalli agreed as if luck was a tangible thing. Althus merely rolled her eyes when the captain wasn't looking in her direction. "Any luck on reacquiring any BOSS or Ministry of Space locator beacons?"
"I fear we are too far out for that, sir." Pontar answered. "Imperial navigation beacons have only been placed along the Orion Spur. As I've been trying to tell our irritating pilot here, we are most certainly in the Sagittarius Arm."
"Ah, never mind all that. We will find our way back in due time. Any signs of El Dorado?' Teemasvalli asked, full of misplaced hope.
"All planets within scanning distance lack the density for aurodium cores." Pontar reported.
Althus wasn't surprised, as it was the same thing they'd been finding for weeks. She turned to Teemasvalli and asked. "Captain, are you sure such a world exists? I mean, that infochant in New Mandalore could have easily been looking for an easy credit."
"Lies! Deceptions." Teemasvalli wheezed before taking a drag from his oxygen mask.
The captain suddenly lurched forward between Pontar and Srev's seats and pointed at the hyperspace radar, specifically at the readout for the ship's long range sensors. "There! Do you see?"
The other three occupants of the cockpit leaned forward trying to spot whatever had gotten Teemasvalli so excited. Althus could see nothing unusual on the monitor.
"I don't see anything, boss." Srev said.
"There was a brief spike in Gravitons and Cronau radiation over by that cluster that looks like a puffer pig." Teemasvalli pointed again. Althus thought a lot of the cloud formations within the nebula looked like puffer pigs.
"You sure you didn't see some coronal ejection from that stellar nursery?" Althus asked.
"There was something there, Althus. I saw it with my own two eyes. In that area maybe ten or twenty light years to the left of us." Teemasvalli argued.
"Going to need better directions than that, chief." Srev piped in.
"Down bearing thirty degrees on a bearing of two-two-seven. Take us over there."
"Roger, roger. Two-two-seven." Srev was already warming up the hyperdrive.
"Captain, we're down to less than forty percent hypermatter reserves." Althus reminded everyone.
"We'll be fine." Teemasvalli was confident. Althus grit her teeth. A twenty light year blind jump would eat up another percentage point. That is, if they didn't plow into some unknown piece of space debris and destroy the Convor all together first.
The view in front of the Convor turned to the swirling light tunnel of hyper space. Althus held her breath. The Convor had a Class 1 hyperdrive and could cross the distance in a matter of minutes.
"Drop us out." Teemasvalli ordered five minutes before Althus believed they were at the spot he had originally indicated.
Srev flipped the switch to disengage the hyperdrive and toggled down the power, dropping the Convor out of hyperspace. The great nebula was still before them, with only some of its closer features slightly larger than from their starting visage a few minutes ago.
"There!" Teemasvalli excitedly pointed, this time out the viewport.
Althus squinted to see better in the void. Sure enough around twenty rough diamond shapes loomed against the gas cloud several thousand kilometers to their front. Thank the Gotra, Teemasvalli had the inkling to drop them out of hyperspace when they did or the Convor would have plowed into one of the derelicts.
"Take us in for a closer look." Teemasvalli ordered.
"Yes, boss." Srev replied and pushed the control stick forward, pushing the Convor through the Void.
"Those look like Star Destroyers." Pontar observed. "And hyperwave radar shows a few even larger capital ships with them."
"What is bigger than a Star Destroyer?" Teemasvalli asked.
Althus was busy with the scanner controls located next to her chair. "No energy signatures on any of the ships. Including shields. I am detecting diminishing heat sources on all of them."
"Well what do you expect if their engines are out?" Srev scolded her.
Althus ignored the annoying Xexto. "Can't get a life sign reading. Their armor must be blocking my scan."
"Or they're all dead." Teemasvalli smiled hungrily. "Making this a legal salvage according to the Constitution and the Mercury Accords."
Details of the ships started to emerge as the Convor closed with them. The ships had been arranged in two battle lines and were clearly adrift. Althus had seen many a Star Destroyer in her career as a spacer but none had ever looked quite like the ones ahead of them now. The Star Destroyers were larger than what she was used to. They were something akin to one and half times the length of the Quill, The Empress's personal flagship, and the only Imperial II class starship in the Navy. None of them were as large as the Ares, though two came close, but Althus wondered if their combined firepower could take that Super Star Destroyer down.
"You don't plan to board them, Captain, do you?" Pontar asked.
"Of course, I do. Althus, you've been whining about fuel for days. How much do you suspect is aboard those ships?"
"Tachyonic sensors aren't detecting emissions. They could be empty, boss." Althus said. "This whole thing looks highly suspicious to me. How did the Navy get this far out and why don't any of these ships register on our BOSS registry lists?"
"You're too cautious for a hyperspace scout, Althus."
"It's my shebs just as well as yours on the line out here, Captain." Althus snapped back.
"Think of the reward, lobster-girl." Srev added. "If this isn't a salvage, the Board of Admirals should pay us a hefty bounty for retrieving their ships."
"Our priority should be survivors." Pontar argued.
"Our priority should be finding a way back to Imperial space." Althus argued.
"And where better to find someone who knows a way back, or at least a map, than aboard those derelicts." Teemasvalli said with finality. In the end what did it matter. If Teemasvalli wanted to step into a trap, this ship of fools would follow his oxygen-deprived lead.
Pontar looked at her. "Just think how grateful those sailors will be for our assistance. That should be worth some credits in the least."
Althus just shrugged. She knew she was fighting a losing battle.
"I can see an airlock on the lead ship." Srev reported. "Should I head for her, boss?"
"That will do fine. Srev, you stay with the ship. You two are coming with me." Teemasvalli took another long drag off of his respirator before snapping it back into place.
Pontar and Althus got up and followed Teemasvalli off the bridge and down to the cargo hold which housed the Convor's own airlock. Once there they were met by the other two crew members, Melion and Ania, who were in the process of suiting up into Enviro-suits. Teemasvalli and Althus started to don theirs as well, though Pontar, as a Givin, didn't need to bother with one.
Melion Card was a serious Muun, as most of his species were. His biggest concern was when and how much he was getting paid, a concern he never tired of discussing, to the rest of the crew's consternation. Supposedly, he had run into some kind of trouble with a scout sniper after the last war and decided life beyond the Bloodstripe Run was a lot safer than the settled worlds of the Empire. He had only come along on this scouting mission because of Teemasvalli's vague promises of El Dorado and a possibly big score from the HEEC.
Ania on the other hand was another cause of frustration for Althus. Ania was a fit Aldaraanian who had played limmie on her academy team. She would have gone pro if a ligament injury hadn't cut her career short. Althus and Ania had tried to get something started during the lonely nights aboard the Convor out past the Bloodstripe, since their tastes ran along the same preferences. If only Teemasvalli had hired another Cephalopoid species instead of a mammalian primate girl. All that hair was stomach-turning to Althus while at the same time she could feel Ania cringe every time she rubbed up against Althus's shelled carapace. Over the course of the mission they had decided they were better off friends, though that hadn't solved any of the frustrations that came with long missions out into the Void.
Melion was the first to suit up and turned on his suit's comm gear. He and Teemasvalli were the eldest members of the crew. "Captain, I saw the scanner reports. Doesn't any of this look familiar to you?"
"None of the ships' profiles were on the BOSS registry." Althus reminded everyone.
"Perhaps, you are too young to remember." Melion told her. Althus, Ania and Pontar all looked to each other and shrugged. They didn't have a clue as to what the Muun was getting at.
"What are you suggesting, Melion? Familiar? Nobody has scored a salvage this big." Teemasvalli replied.
"Boss, these others might have been younglings back then or not even birthed, but surely you haven't forgotten the 'big jump.'" All heads snapped in Melion's direction at his question.
The 'big jump' was a thing of legends. Oh, it had really happened. Althus's own parents had told her all about traveling through it aboard an Imperial transport two years before Althus's own spawning day. Four Sector fleets had been left vulnerable for weeks while their crews had frantically worked to restore power to their drained ships. The later discovery of a hostile Earth in the same system had made their continued survival all the more miraculous.
"You don't suppose these ships went through a similar event?" Pontar asked.
"What about that ship that vanished through a wormhole during the war? What was its name?" Ania asked.
"The Discovery." Althus remembered. "But that thing was a big Mon Cal research ship if I recall right. This is at least seventeen Star Destroyers of a class I've never seen before. Maybe more."
"Wait? So those aren't ours?" Teemasvalli looked confused.
"Anyone think those could possibly be 1st Empire ships from the Home Galaxy?" Ania wondered aloud.
"Jesus! I hope not. If Palpatine sent Vader or Thrawn looking for us then we are in a heap of trouble the likes of which you kids can't even imagine." Melion warned.
"Now wait a sec. We're getting ahead of ourselves." Teemasvalli stomped his foot like a petulant youngling. "As far as we know those are just lifeless chunks of durasteel out there waiting to be plundered. That's all the info we have and that's all the facts I need."
"If you say so, boss." Ania shrugged but didn't hesitate to strap a GLX Firelance blaster to her hip, just in case the captain was out of his mind, as Althus suspected was the case.
Althus pressurized her enviro-suit and then strapped her own Rancor-X Interceptor across her back. She could tell there would be no dissuading Teemasvalli from this fool's errand. If this was a trap then she was just going to let the Dressellian step into it and hope to Phasma's tears that she could get her shebs back to the Convor before it all went south.
From outside the hull there was a series of metallic thuds that reverberated throughout the Convor's titanium skin. Srev's voice cut across the Convor's PA system. "Anchor pins are out. I'll have us connected to the air lock in just a moment."
Teemasvalli stepped to the door and waited for the all clear indicator lamp to turn blue. Another series of bangs and clanks followed by the hissing of pressurized gas indicated the Convor was docked with the derelict. The Dressellian rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation of the rich pickings he expected to find on the other side.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Althus reminded the boarding party. Teemasvalli just chuckled at her nervousness.
The air lock lamp turned from red to blue indicating all clear. Teemasvalli disengaged to locks which unsnapped in a series of loud pops. The door opened to reveal a small tunnel to the Star Destroyer's own air lock blast door which was slowly opening on the other side.
Inside the tunnel artificial gravity gave out as the Convor's crew floated over to the derelict. The inside of the Star Destroyer was pitch black causing Althus to activate her powerful EVA spot lamps. The crew toggled on their magnetic boots which forced them down to the floor. It only took a second to adjust to the sensation of unclamping with every step so Althus didn't accidently pitch forward with every step.
"Atmospheric levels are within the breathable zone." Pontar reported.
Althus looked at her suit's sensor display on her forearm datapad. The oxygen levels inside the Star Destroyer were higher than they were inside the Convor. Perhaps getting a good breath of air would prevent Teemasvalli from doing anything too stoopa while they explored the war ship.
Melion was the first to raise the visor on his helmet and take a deep breath. "Just like the 'big jump'. On my transport we were powerless for days back then."
"I remember waking up starving." Teemasvalli said.
"Perhaps the crew is in the galley getting a bite to eat?" Ania pondered.
"There is no crew. This ship is abandoned." Teemasvalli stated. No doubt, the captain didn't want a living crew member of the Star Destroyer to contest their salvage claim.
"I suggest we stick together until we get to engineering and see what shape we're in so we can get power up in this girl." Althus suggested.
"We'll go to the command bridge first." Teemasvalli countered. "I'm curious to figure out why these ships are out here."
Pontar leaned closer to Althus and whispered. "More like he wants to know when their owners are coming home."
Teemasvalli led the way. It took them several moments to figure out where exactly inside the Star Destroyer they were situated. Ania finally identified the area they boarded as the port side water processing plant. Around the tanks had been racks and racks of food storage bins. Althus found it strange the storage tanks and bin were full of potable water and perfectly edible food stuffs, signifying whatever had happened to the crew hadn't been starvation.
Melion had been smart and brought a piece of colored flourescent green chalk to mark their progress so they could find their way back to the Convor. He marked their passage with slashes along the ship's walls. Their lamps cut through the darkness as they travelled further into the ship.
Suddenly, everyone stopped firmly in their tracks as a sound wafted down a side access tunnel. Althus leaned closer.
"Are those voices?" She asked as the sound faded away.
It can't be." Teemasvalli assured everyone.
"Maybe it was a ghost." Ania suggested.
"I ain't afraid of no ghost." Pontar's joke fell flat as several of the crew drew their weapons.
"No such thing as spooks. They're a Terran myth." Althus reminded the group. Pontar and Melion relaxed as anything Terran was not to be taken too seriously.
"Let's get moving." Teemasvalli told the group.
As they moved whispers drifted in from the dark. They were followed by a series of clanks and bangs that popped from unknown directions. A minute later the sound of metal scrapping on metal creaked down the hallway. It was followed by a distant swear accompanied by the laughter of several individuals.
If Althus had hair on the back of her neck it would have surely been rising as her eye sockets rapidly swung back and forth for any sign of approaching danger. She no longer held any faith in Teemasvalli's assertion that they were alone. If she didn't know any better she could have sworn the ship was starting to wake up all around her.
"My goosebumps are getting goosebumps." Ania stated. No one responded to the Alderaanian's concerns as they were all focused on the strange sounds coming out of the dark.
Slowly rotating out of the darkness came an object the size of a bread box. Its sudden appearance startled Teemasvalli. The Dressellian raised his pistol and aimed it at the spinning intruder.
It squeaked a series of beeps that Althus identified as a MSE-6 droid. "No! Wait!"
It was too late, Teemasvalli released a bolt which loudly connected with the mouse droid. With a slight electronic scream the little machine exploded in a cloud of sparks and smoke. The echo from Teemasvalli's shot echoed down the halls in every direction.
"Fierfek." Ania understated.
The crew was at the junction of two corridors. Their lamp lights flickered off every surface as they turned to and fro. The thud and slap of dozens of distant footfalls and handholds signaled the rushing approach of dozens of armored figures.
"Everyone lower your weapons. We're outnumbered." Melion spoke with the wisdom of age. Everyone except Teemasvalli followed his lead.
Troopers in Naval and Stormtrooper armor poured from every direction. The zero-g environment forced them to pull themselves along by handholds along the floor, walls and even the ceiling. Even without gription boots they quickly surrounded the Convor's crew. All of them were armed with white and black blaster rifles, the like of which, Althus had never seen Stormtroopers carry before.
"Shavit", Althus swore to herself as she tried to recall the penalty for trespassing on a military ship. She tried to look on the bright side, at least these guys would get her back to Imperial territory again. Unfortunately, she would have to travel back to the Empire while locked in their brig.
"Hands up! Drop your weapons!" One of the Stormtroopers ordered the group. His blaster was pointed at Teemasvalli's wrinkled head. For the first time since she had known him the Dressellian actually saw reason and tossed away his blaster pistol. It floated through the air until another Stormtrooper snatched it up.
Naval troopers grabbed the crew from behind and frisked them. After relieving them of their weapons their arms were bound behind their backs with duracords at the wrists.
"We're an exploration team. We've got a license from the Ministry of Space." Teemavalli told the troopers. "We just came aboard your ship to render aid."
Althus didn't think any of the troopers were buying it. She looked them over in the light of her lamps. Their armor looked different than what she was used to. She couldn't quite place the alterations but she knew they were there.
Melion tried to help the captain plead their case. "We are Imperial citizens on a legal rescue and salvage operation. You don't have any right to detain us like this."
From somewhere far away emerged a scraping noise that grew closer and closer. Teemasvalli attempted to look past the Stormtroopers to determine its source as it slowly approached the restrained crew members. "We are from the Empire just like you f-f-fellas."
"The Empire was a weakness that was excised from the Galaxy on the burning sands of Jakku. A New Era has dawned." The voice was gruff but feminine at the same time and it sent chills down Althus's gills. The Mon Cal had no idea where Jakku was but she knew instinctively that the owner of that voice hated everything about her.
The troopers shoved the Convor crewmembers to their knees in front of the impending arrival.
The owner of the voice slowly emerged from the darkness. While the Stormtroopers around her floated in the zero-g gravity she walked perpendicular to the corridor's wall as easily as if she had been strolling through a park. She held one hand palm down out in front of her as if willing her feet to stick to the wall. Was this the Force, Althus wondered? Was she one of the New Temple Jedi under Grandmaster Ashla Ti?
Or was it some other trick. The woman, at least Althus believed it was a woman, was clad entirely in black. Her boots were Death Trooper boots and, as far as Althus knew, Death Troopers didn't use gription treads. She wore a matte-black cuirass with a chain mail skirt over leather leggings. The chain mail gave a menacingly heavy jingle as she walked. Her arms were covered in black bantha leather strips and fingerless gloves. Around both her wrists and forearms were shredder gauntlets that certainly must be concealing some type of vibroblades. Hanging from the belt at her waist was a vicious half-meter long mourning star on one side and evil-looking obsidian horseman's pick on the other. The most disturbing part of her outfit was her helmet. The bucket was a sallet style-helmet that completely encompassed her head with a half face shield that merged so close with the brow of the helmet that it was difficult to determine how she could see out of the narrow eye slit. The bottom of her face shield covered her mouth and cheeks down to her jawline but left her chin exposed revealing greenish skin marked with mysterious tattoos.
If this was a Jedi, then it was the first Jedi Althus had ever heard of that radiated pure anger.
"We are here to help." Teemasvalli tried to recover from the shock the whole crew was feeling at the woman's appearance. "Our ship can help with a cold start."
"Surely, you all remember how to do it again after the last time we were all in this fix." Melion added.
"The last time?" The woman hissed. "A ship like this has never experienced catastrophic power failure."
"But what about the 'big jump'?" Ania asked.
The woman spun on the Alderaanian. "What is a 'Big Jump'? Tell us how close are we to Wayland?"
"Wayland? Where the fierfek in the Empire is that." Althus asked. She was getting sick of having all these blasters pointed at her.
The woman knelt down in front of Althus and cupped Althus's chin in her hand. Her fingers gripped her firmly as her nails dug into the Mon Cal's carapace skin. "I'm tired of asking questions. Tell me all about this Empire. Are you a part of one of the Remnants?"
"And if I don't?" Althus asked.
The woman raised her free hand and raised a single finger. Within a heartbeat the Stormtrooper standing in front of Ania blasted the Alderaanian squarely between her eyes. Ania's head exploded like a melon, showering the Convor's crew with blood and brain matter. Pontar gasped. Teemasvalli choked out a startled scream and then realizing the feebleness of his attempt tried to gasp some of the oxygen floating from his respirator attached to his chest.
Althus's mind wanted to revolt on her. She could taste Ania's blood on her tongue and smell her in her gills. She'd never seen someone so callously murdered before. Ania's life was snapped out of existence in the blink of an eye.
The sinister woman turned Althus's face towards her own helmeted visage. Beyond the eye-slit, Althus could feel the woman's eyes boring into her mind somehow.
"Envy her. She died quickly. Should you continue to defy me, you won't be as lucky."
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Up next- The man who held the trigger